Love it Hate It
Written: Mar 21 '02
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Pros: Great display, speedy, beautiful, Combo Drive, lightweight, decent battery life, and obviously the Mac OS.
Cons: Buggy trackpad, expensive, un-ergonomic, kinda flimsy feeling design
The Bottom Line: If you need the fastest, slickest looking Mac portable, and have the cash, this is the machine. But you might want to play with it in person before you buy.
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| kluza's Full Review: Apple PowerBook G4 15.2 in. (M8362LL/A) Mac Notebo... |
I have owned a PB G3 Wallstreet for 4 years. I finally upgraded to the G4 Powerbook.
Sometimes I don't know how I did without, and sometimes I miss my G3 Powerbook.
Most of the apps I use are not OSX compatible, so I reformatted the drive and run Mac OS9.2.2. This review is the machine with 9.2.2 OS. Out of the box it comes with the The machine, AC cord, battery, software(itunes, idvd, OSX and 9.2)
Of course it works right out of the box--its a Mac!
Good things- Its spec-sheet fast and also feels fast. This thing looks amazing. The screen is the best I've seen--its huge and crisp. For such a big computer its still really lightweight and THIN--1 inch thick! It has firewire and comes with a built in slot load dvd/cdrw drive. Did I say its fast? This thing BLOWS AWAY Wintel PC Laptops for sure.
Bad things-- The trackpad is not so good. The mouse always jumps to weird places and it seems to get confused on whether your finger is touching it or not, causing alot of mis-fires and mis clicks. Not nearly as smooth as my old G3 Powerbook. The mouse button is also odd. It takes too much effort to click it compared to the smoothness of my older G3 Powerbook.
Also, Apple boasts titanium, and yet while it looks great, I feel as if I don't watch every move I make with it, I might break it. The finish seems like it can come off easily, and it just doesn't feel sturdy-- it feels more like a delicate work of art. When I rest my wrists on the computer as I type, the chassis sags from the weight.
Also, because of the huge screen, the actual depth of the computer is deep, and it makes typing hard and puts strain on your wrists. RSI waiting to happen. But that may be because I'm used to my smaller older one.
Also I must say, this freezes alot more often than my Powerbook G3 running the exact same OS and software. The G4 hardware might be a little less reliable than the G3 on this machine, but of course many user errors could be causing this.
Overall if you are a Mac enthusiast and need portability(where you wont be banging it up too much), you wont find anything better. Its super fast, looks great, and has an amazing screen. A few minor annoyances, but nothing too bad. I have been an avid Mac user for years, so my criticisms are very picky so don't get me wrong, its a seriously grand machine!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2250
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor speed: 501-600
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
kluza
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Reviews written: 1
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